Weekly Newsletter: September 6, 2022

Weekly News (September 6, 2022)

Compiled by Fizza Kulvi, Meaghan Wester, and Nick Gertler with Sara Bannerman, Fenwick McKelvey, Guillaume Dandurand, Marek Blottière, and Kevin Morin
McMaster University, Communications Governance Observatory

The Communications Governance Discussion Group meets every few weeks by Zoom.  Email organizer Derek Hrynyshyn <derekh@yorku.ca> for details.

(August 30 – September 5, 2022)

Canadian News 

·         [TELECOM POLICY] Canadians are getting a 988 mental-health crisis line. But who’ll be picking up the phone? (The Star)

·         [TELECOM/COMPETITION POLICY] Rogers outage relevant to approval of $26B Shaw deal, Competition Tribunal rules (City News)

·         [ONLINE HARMS] Projet de loi sur la haine en ligne La haine virtuelle « descend dans les rues », déplore Pablo Rodriguez (La Presse)

·         [BROADCAST POLICY / HATE] Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez breaks silence, condemns ‘disgusting’ tweets (National Post)

·         [JOURNALIST HARASSMENT / HATE] [Harcèlement et intimidation des journalistes Les médias demandent à Justin Trudeau d’instaurer des mesures (La Presse)

·         [TELECOM/ISP OWNERSHIP] Bell met la main sur Distributel (La Presse)

·         [TELECOM/ INTERNET POLICY] Depuis son acquisition par Bell Baisses de prix spectaculaires chez EBOX (La Presse)

·         [PLATFORM GOVERNANCE] Tweet out a typo? You’ll soon be able to edit it, if you pay (The Star)

·         [PUBLIC ART/FREE EXPRESSION] Edmonton cancels art installation over fears it may be perceived as celebrating colonialism (Globe and Mail)

·         [JOURNALIST HARASSMENT / HATE] Opinion: ‘Dear Prime Minister’: Open letter urging government to take action on harassment and abuse of journalists in Canada signed by 48 media organizations (The Star)

·         [ONLINE HARASSMENT/HATE SPEECH] OPINION: Brian Myles: Un mal plus grand nommé populisme (Le Devoir)

·         [COMPETITION POLICY] Opinion: Bednar: Is Competition Bureau’s defence still … defensible? (Financial Post)

International News

·         [PRIVACY] FTC Sues Idaho Company for Selling Sensitive Tracking Data (WSJ)

·         [PRIVACY] Social-Media Firms Would Have to Consider Children’s Health Under Bill Passed by California Legislature (WSJ)

·         [SURVEILLANCE] Tech tool offers police ‘mass surveillance on a budget’ (City News)

·         [SURVEILLANCE] The Two Faces of China’s Surveillance State (WSJ)

·         [COMPETITION] Microsoft’s $69 bln Activision deal could harm competition, UK says(Reuters)

·         [PIVACY] Samsung says some U.S. customer data was exposed in July breach (Reuters)

·         [ONLINE HARMS] Twitter account Libs of TikTok blamed for harassment of children’s hospitals (Washington Post)

·         [PLATFORM GOVERNANCE] Google Says Trump’s Truth Social Must Scrub Violent Content to Join Play Store (NYT)

·         [PLATFORM GOVERNANCE] Parler Returns to Google Play Store (NYT)

·         [PLATFORM GOVERNANCE] ​​Twitter can’t afford to be one of the world’s most influential websites (Washington Post)

·         [PLATFORM GOVERNANCE] Google Employee Who Played Key Role in Protest of Contract With Israel Quits (NYT)

·         [PLAYTFORM GOVERNANCE] Microsoft Changes European Cloud-License Terms After Complaints (Bloomberg)

·         [PLATFORM GOVERNANCE] Under pressure, security firm Cloudflare drops Kiwi Farms website (WAshington Post)

·         [PLATFORM GOVERNANCE] WhatsApp bans 2.4 million Indian accounts in July (Reuters)

·         [INTERNET/MOBILE ACCESS] Massive hike in cell service fees cuts off Lebanon’s poor from the world (Washington Post)

·         [ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE] With new China AI chip restrictions, U.S. takes aim at a critical niche (Reuters)

·         [ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE] Ready or not, mass video deepfakes are coming (Washington Post)

·         [ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE] AI system could spot Parkinson’s early, but ethicists urge caution (Washington Post)

·         [DEFAMATION] Fox News stars questioned by election tech company in defamation case(Washington Post)

·         [DEFAMATION] She says ‘Inventing Anna’ made her look ‘greedy.’ Now she’s suing Netflix.(Washington Post)

·         [PRIVACY] Global VPN Providers Pull India Servers Over New Cybersecurity Rules (WSJ)

(August 30 – September 5, 2022)

Supreme Court of Canada

The Supreme Court of Canada has deposited with the Registrar judgements in the following leave applications.

  • [DEFAMATION] Marcel Chartier v. Serge Bibeau (Man.) (Civil) (By Leave) (40083) (DISMISSED)

Innovation, Science and Economic Development

Copyright Board

YouTube

Twitter

CRTC

News Releases

Decisions

  • 2022-238 – Public Interest Advocacy Centre – Request to define the privacy requirements for telecommunications service providers in the context of any digital contact tracing technologies app – Public record: 8665-P8-202005769
  • 2022-237 – CISC Emergency Services Working Group – Changes to dates and direction set out in Telecom Decision 2021-210 regarding the implementation of handset-based location technology – Public record: 8621-C12-01/08

Senate of Canada

  • No sitting days this week; next sitting day: September 20, 2022

Canadian House of Commons

  • No sitting days this week; next sitting day: September 19, 2022

CRTC

The CRTC plans to issue the following decisions/regulatory policies in the week of 6 to 9 September 2022. This is subject to change without notice.

Telecom Decision:

  • Public Interest Advocacy Centre – Request to define the privacy requirements for telecommunications service providers in the context of any digital contact tracing technologies app
    Public record: 8665-P8-202005769

Broadcasting Decision:

  • United Christian Broadcasters Media Canada 
    FM radio station in Regina – Technical changes 
    Public record: 2022-0351-1 

Public Consultations

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